1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of protective covers for vehicles and, more particularly, to apparatus for discouraging cats and the like from sleeping on the vehicles, including automobiles and motorcycles.
2. Background Discussion
It is well known that cats have a propensity for sleeping on the warm hoods of automobiles, especially in cool or cold weather when the hoods stay warm for an extended time because of a warm engine under the hood. It is, perhaps, less well known that cats also have a propensity for sleeping on the leather or plastic seats of motorcycles, which may also be warm from the motorcycles having recently been ridden.
Although when cats sleep on the hoods of automobiles or on the seats of motorcycles they usually do not cause any permanent damage to the hoods or seats, it is very annoying to the automobile or motorcycle owner to find paw prints on the automobile or motorcycle, especially muddy paw prints-and even more especially if the muddy paw prints are made by a cat owned by someone else. Moreover, some paw prints may be accompanied by claw scratches on the hood or motorcycle seat.
It is equally well known that it is very difficult to discourage such behavior on the part of cats, since cats are basically feral animals that are completely independent and are notoriously disrespectful of property boundaries and peoples property rights. Even keeping a vehicle garaged at night is no guarantee that cat paw prints will not be found on the automobile hood or motorcycle seat of a morning.
There is understandably often a strong, natural urge on the part of the vehicle owner to cause great bodily injury to a cat found sleeping on the automobile hood or motorcycle seat-assuming the cat could be caught. However, this is not a practical option, not only because of the cruelty to the cat which is merely following its instincts, but because injury of the offending cat may cause serious neighborhood problems. In the present state of urban affairs, it is not inconceivable that an individual whose cat has been intentionally hurt by a neighbor, even though such injury may be justifiable, may settle the matter by shooting the neighbor.
There are, of course, protective automobile and motorcycle covers that at least protect the automobile paint and motorcycle seats from being muddled and/or damaged by cats'paws. Such protective covers, (exemplified in the case of motorcycles by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,171,145 to Roger Pearson; 3,884,523 to Brian Allen and 1,853,742 to J. L. Owen, et al) do not, however, usually discourage a cat from climbing onto the covered vehicle and the covers, which may be expensive, may themselves be muddied or damaged by a cat climbing around on them.
For these and other reasons, the present applicant has invented a humane, protective pad device that can be used on the hood of an automobile or the seat of a motorcycle to prevent or at least discourage a cat from sleeping on the automobile hood or motorcycle seat without injuring the cat. After several discouraging and annoying (to the cat) attempts to jump onto the pad device, a cat may learn to avoid the automobile or motorcycle in favor of other automobiles or motorcycles not similarly protected.